“We will be back tomorrow morning probably or afternoon.” I said sliding my backpack on my shoulders.

“Call me when you get there.”

“Ama, its just Mzuzu.” I complained with a smile.

She closed the distance between us. “I don’t care. This is my first night away from you. I am going to have to know you are okay, so call me.”

I glanced down at Anga’s garage floor. “I will.”

She cupped my shoulders with her hands, “And if you have a nightmare, I don’t care if its 2am.” Her eyes locked with mine. “You call me, okay?”

“Yes Ama.”

Salifya opened her pod and got in. “We should go.”

“Salifya, take care of her.”Ama said in a serious tone. Sali nodded. I gave Ama a hug and got into the pod.

“Come here,” Ama said gazing at Sali. Sali got out the pod looking confused. Ama embraced Sali. “You take care too.”

Sali’s arm slowly wrapped themselves around Ama. “I will.”

We had not told Ama what we were doing in Mzuzu, I let her assume that we were going to resume our search for my parents.

“Use this, if you have to.” Salifya handed me a solar blaster. She turned to Xo. “Take care of her.”

Xo nodded not turning away laptop’s screen. “You need to go now.”

Salifya got off the pod and rushed into the HM building. I watched as Xo disabled the security so Sali could sneak in. I was filled with a strange feeling of pride and admiration as I watched Sali stealthily sneak past the guards, and knock out those that got in her way. She had made it to the cell Pilirani was in. On their way out two guards, armed with blasters, encircled her and Pilirani. Sali told Pilirani to lie down, she did. She shot the guard on her left with her solar blaster and there one on her right with blade thrower. As fast as lightining.

“That’s your sister.” Xo said. “Her aim is so good.”

Sali had shot them just like that. They were still breathing but they were very wounded. She shot them with no hesitation. She just walked past their writhing bodies with no concern. I guess working as a detective she had to do stuff like this and it came easier.

That same night we took Pilirani back to her husband. She cried in her husband’s arms. A smile tugged at my lips. Sali had done that.

“You are sleeping at a lodge? C’mon you can sleep at my house.” Xo said. “It’s almost 2am, you will just pay a full night for using the room for a few hours.”

Sali conceded. We flew till we got a medium sized house with a large grass field surrounding. Sali took me into a room, she said belonged to Xo’s brother who was away at college. Xo brought out an air mattress and some sheets.

“I will take the air mattress.” Sali said starting to make the bed.

“Then let me make my own bed.”

“I am already done.” She really was almost done.

I pressed my lips against each other, then relaxed them for a second to say, “Thanks.”

I didn’t scream that night. But the nightmare scared me the same way the others had. It was of the night Limbani almost killed me. I jumped out of bed. I walked to the kitchen to get some water. Sitting on a desk, in the next room I saw Xo working on his computers. He was so focussed on what he was doing he did not hear me enter the room. I watched him. He looked frenzied and tired.

“What are you doing?”

“I am going through some files your sister got off the server at the HMC facility.” He muttered not even turning to face me.

“You look tired and frustrated.”

“I am combing through a lot of data to find out information on the other pygmies being held at the facility.”

I starred at the screen. A smile spread over my lips. The tests I had been doing were so similar to this.

“Can I try?” I said. “I did archiving last year.”

He got up. “Be my guest.”

I slowly sat down in his warm seat. I felt his tired eyes on my back. After some ten minutes of this silent watching, he said. “You are really good at this.”

“Thanks.”

“You know what? I will leave you to it. I am going to go try to catch some zzzs.” He walked out. I finally understood those tests they had been sending me. This is what they wanted us to do; to learn how to comb through HM files. I managed to get the whole list at 3 am.

Author’s Note

Rose Chibambo- Chee-wer-mbow

This woman played a monumental role in the fight for independence against British Colonial Rule in Malawi. She is not as celebrated as she should be in my opinion.

Vera Chirwa- Chee-ree-wer (rwa pronounced as rwa in Rwanda in other words as a single syllable). She too played an important role in the fight for independence against British colonial rule. And she like R.Chibambo is not as celebrated as she should be.

Did you enjoy this chapter? If so give it a star.

Let me know what you think of the story this far in the comments.

Thanks for reading this chapter. Have a good week.

Discussion:

What do you think Ipyana’s role in Aka-rebel will be like?

What do you think of Salifya so far?

Next chapter will be in Salifya’s point of view. Sali will go through a major transformation….care to guess what it will be?

The image used for this chapter belongs to Ana Teresa Fernandez